The darkest night of the year is rife with tension, a moment when, from our earthly perspective, the sun nearly dies. It is an initiatory condition, not a rest. We are gestating in preparation for new light. Yule marks the total triumph of night, yet at the very height of its victory the seeds of its defeat are sown, because this threshold also begins the slow return of the sun as the days stretch, almost imperceptibly, toward brightness. This is why the quote strikes me so s
